Henry Arundell inspires Bath to come-from-behind win over Saracens

Henry Arundell’s two tries helped Bath to a tight victory over Saracens as they squeezed their way into the quarter-finals of the Champions Cup. The English champions trailed 10-0 at the break against a Sarries side unrecognisable from the one crushed at the Rec a fortnight ago in the Prem. But Bath’s heavyweight bench came to the rescue, with Thomas du Toit to the fore, as they rallied to win.

Saracens pushed Bath all the way and a late try from Noah Caluori set up a nervy finish, but Arundell’s second on the final play settled the contest and booked a last-eight home tie against Northampton next weekend.

Bath’s squad is so deep they wallow in the luxury of being able to put out two different top-end sides. Last Sunday they won at Sale with what was in effect the B team; 13 changes later, Johann van Graan had his A-listers out to welcome Saracens.

A fortnight ago, Bath thrashed Saracens 62-15 here to complete a Prem double, a result that pointed to only one outcome. But at the back of their minds Bath would have been wary. Saracens have it within themselves to produce a big performance – they beat Toulouse in the pool stage – and they had Maro Itoje and Jamie George stiffening the side this time around.

Ollie Lawrence bursts through a tackle during Bath’s 31-22 Champions Cup win over Saracens. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

This was to be no romp. In the first half Bath’s basics were off. Passes went to ground and the lineout went astray. Even Finn Russell fumbled. At the same time Saracens were impressively resolute. Their maul defence was especially strong, stopping Bath at source, and Rhys Carré’s power made the scrum a plentiful penalty source.

If the contest was bitty and unsatisfying, that suited Saracens down to the ground. They took the lead in the 14th minute through their zippy scrum-half, Charlie Bracken, who fooled Bath’s blind-side cover with a dummy and had the pace to race over.

Bath lost the England back-row Guy Pepper to the sin-bin for some cynical interference at a ruck and while he was off Owen Farrell put over a penalty to give Saracens their half-time lead. But in the second half the game took on a different flavour.

Four minutes in, the speedster Arundell came off his wing to take a lovely pass from Charlie Ewels and scorch through the defence to score from 40 metres out. Caluori almost held him up, but Arundell wrestled the ball down to score.

Henry Arundell started Bath’s comeback with a try early in the second half. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

Bath suffered another setback when Beno Obano was sent to the sin-bin in the 47th minute by the stand-in referee, Ben Connor. He had taken over from Nika Amashukeli – who needed treatment in the first half after colliding with Bath’s Josh Bayliss – at the interval.

Light-handed or not, they took the lead through a converted try from Joe Cokanasiga after Ollie Lawrence had made a hole in midfield.

Bath’s next score came from their own line. Andy Onyeama-Christie spilled what would have been a scoring pass for Saracens and in a flash Bath were on their way. Pepper shipped the ball on to Cokanasiga who outpaced the first wave of cover before finding Alfie Barbeary who sent Ben Spencer on his way to the line. The Rec rose in adulation.

Bath still had defending to do as Saracens came again. Max Malins cut the deficit to four points with 14 minutes left with a good finish in the left corner from Caluori’s pass. But with the Saracens second-row Harry Wilson in the sin-bin Bath unleashed Lawrence through the middle for their fourth try.

Still Saracens would not go away and Caluori kept Saracens in touch with a try with six minutes remaining. Finally, though, the exhausted visitors ran out of numbers and Arundell went in at the corner after a relentless forward barrage.